The Road Trip Reaction
by TBBT78
Summary: Following Leonard's road trip confession Penny is left reeling by many unanswered questions as to what exactly happened that summer while he was away working in the North Sea. A short fic based on Lenny in Las Vegas. DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Big Bang Theory.
1. Chapter 1

**I thought I might have a go at writing a two, maybe three chapter fic based on what happens between Leonard and Penny in Las Vegas. I welcome your comments and feedback.**

 **Warning: Contains spoilers for S8 finale.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Big Bang Theory.**

It was gone midnight when Penny entered into the hotel by way of a revolving glass door. Striding purposefully toward the lobby bar she took a seat on a high chrome stool, picked up the drinks menu and ordered herself a glass of champagne.

"Out partying tonight?" the bartender enquired casually as he went about uncorking the bottle and pouring the fizzy liquid into a frosted champagne flute.

Dressed in her favourite black sequin dress that she'd worn on a subsequent trip to Las Vegas with Amy and Bernadette the previous fall, it was reasonable to assume that she was on her way out to a club or to a casino. In fact, given that the following day was set to be the biggest and most important day of her life so far she had promised herself just the one drink before retiring to bed. Tomorrow she was to finally marry Leonard.

"I guarantee you after this I'm heading straight to bed." Penny asserted after taking a small sip and taking a moment to savour the sweet taste and the sensation of the bubbles on her tongue. "I'm getting married tomorrow." she added.

"Well in that case my congratulations! Welcome to Las Vegas." the bartender declared in a sing-song voice. He'd noticed her engagement ring while she'd been studying the drinks menu and had been wondering at what point her fiancé was going to join the exceedingly attractive blond that was now sat opposite him at his bar. "You've certainly come to the right place to get married. 115 thousand couples per year can't be wrong can they?!"

"Im getting married tomorrow...wow." Penny repeated to herself as she absentmindely twisted the solitaire ring on her finger that Leonard had presented her with just over a year ago. "I still can't quiet believe it's actually happening!"

It had certainly been a whirlwind of a day, beginning much like any other, but ending with her and Leonard making an impulsive decision to drive to Las Vegas to get married. In the end it had taken five hours to make the journey from Pasadena to Las Vegas and although it had been their intention to marry that night, exhausted and much in need of a of a shower they had decided to postpone for a few hours. And so, after driving to the county marriage bureau to obtain their marriage licence dining afterwards at a steak restaurant, they had checked into a hotel with plans to marry the following day at a chapel Leonard had found and booked online.

Just then a guest approached the bar and ordered a beer, momentarily taking the bartender away from the bride-to-be, leaving her to drink her champagne and reflect upon her impending nuptials.

"So where's the lucky guy tonight?" the bartender questioned after he'd finished serving his customer and returned to end of the bar where Penny was seated.

"In the hotel across the street." Penny answered.

The bartender looked bemused.

"Well, after we decided not to get married tonight I thought it would be kinda romantic if we didn't see each other until the ceremony tomorrow, so we agreed to make separate room reservations." Penny explained. "Well that and you know because it's bad luck for the bride and groom to see each on the day of the wedding." she added matter-of-factly. Privately the bartender thought it bizarre to forgo a night together in Las Vegas for the sake of a wedding superstition. For Penny it afforded her the opportunity to get her hair and nails done in the morning before the ceremony at 1pm and maybe to have a massage if time permitted.

"Well, I'm sure come tomorrow everything will turn out just great for you both." he enthused. "Have you been together long?"

"Eight years." Penny replied. She couldn't quite believe herself how quickly the time had gone by. Only recently she'd admitted to Sheldon that she couldn't remember a time when he and Leonard hadn't been in her life. "Well, we've known each other for eight years. We haven't actually been together all that time. Let's just say we've had a few break-ups along the way..."

Even years later it still pained her to remember the two years following her breaking up with Leonard in the bowling alley and how sad and lonely she had become thereafter, particularly after he'd started to date Raj's sister Priya.

"Well you know what they say about the path to true love and all that." the bartender remarked flashing a cheeky grin that was designed to lighten the mood and elicit a smile from his customer who had now bowed her head and was chewing nervously on her lower lip. "At least after eight years nobody can say you're rushing into marriage. Hey, you must know everything there is to know about each other." He intended his words to calm and reassure someone he presumed was a nervous bride-to-be; however it was clear from his customer's demeanour that they were having quite the opposite effect.

"I hope I haven't said something to upset you?" he said apologetically, after seeing Penny grimace and sensing that he'd unwittingly hit a nerve. "Are you ok?"

And then succumbing to the overwhelming urge to share what had been bothering her all evening, Penny found herself blurting it out. "He kissed a girl.. Leonard...my fiancé he told me that he kissed girl." she garbled quickly. Leonard's confession that night while on route to Las Vegas had been a complete bombshell which had left her reeling with many unanswered questions.

"And now you're having second thoughts about whether to go through with the wedding, right?" the bartender presumed.

Shaking her head Penny downed the final dregs of her champagne in one gulp. "No of course not.."she snapped angrily, rising from her stool. "I shouldn't be telling you this...I don' even know you."

About to beat a hasty retreat Penny hesitated. She wasn't angry with the bartender, the only person she was angry with was Leonard himself who was probably sleeping soundly, comforted by the knowledge that she had agreed that was wedding was to go ahead despite his revelation.

"Look, I'm sorry." she apologised, turning back toward the bartender. "I don't normally yell at strangers. I'm just a little stressed right now."

"Hey, no problem. Forget it. Can I get another drink?" he offered.

"No, thanks. I really should be getting to bed."

"Well, is there anything else I can get you?" the bartender continued.

"How about a time machine so I can back and erase the last six hours." Penny answered to which the bartender chuckled, impressed by her effort to be humorous despite her obvious upset.

"Sorry, I think we're all out of those." he smiled. "And anyway, would you _really_ rather not know about your boyfriend kissing this other girl? I mean maybe its a good thing that's he's told you now."

Closing her eyes for a few seconds Penny pictured Leonard's guilty expression while driving that night and let out a sigh. "That's just it. I don't really know what happened." she shrugged. "All I know is that they were both drunk at the time."

So far Leonard had revealed very little about the kiss that had taken place on board a boat in the North Sea nearly two years ago and initially Penny had had no desire to know the details, preferring . That had however changed.

"Maybe you need to ask yourself if you can trust him that it won't happen again?" the bartender said.

In her heart Penny knew she had no reason to doubt her finance's fidelity, knowing him to be naïve at times when it came to the flirtations of other women, but certainly not a cheater. "He swore it was just a drunken mistake." she answered quietly."But I can't stop thinking about it. Believe me I want to, but somehow I just can't.."

"Well if you plan on marrying this guy tomorrow I reckon you do have a right to know. Sounds to me like you guys have some talking to do."

While listening Penny's gaze had wandered across the bar, sighting a bride and groom who had returned from their wedding and were downing tequila shots in quick succession. It brought to mind her own alcohol-fuelled misadventure which had resulted in her unwittingly marrying Zack while on vacation over Thanksgiving holiday. It was just one of several things in her life that she had come to regret.

"You know what, this _isn't_ how I ever imagined marrying Leonard would be." Penny admitted sadly, turning her attention back toward her newly found confidant. The thrill of throwing caution to the wind and heading off to elope in Las Vegas had in the last hour begun to fade to be replaced by nagging doubt and feelings of disappointment. Only that morning she had talked of marrying in a church and releasing butterflies. The simple ceremony they had planned for the following day was certainly going to be a far cry from the one surrounded by friends and family that she had envisaged. "I wish our friends were here to see us get married... my parents are gonna flip out when I tell them...Mom probably won't speak to me for months. Amy will be sooo disappointed not to be my maid of honour.."

"You do love him, right?" the bartender enquired, his bold line of questioning catching Penny by surprise, but he could already see the answer in her eyes.

"I've made some really stupid mistakes, done stuff that I've regretted, but Leonard, he's been the one constant in my life. He's always been there for me, even when we weren't together. He's my soulmate." Penny said in a choked whisper, realising then that she had never actually characterised Leonard out loud as being such, but that knowing without doubt that he was exactly that. Removing her cell phone from her purse, she stared down at the screensaver picture of the man she loved sporting his sexy graduate costume. She knew the danger of opening herself up to more hurt by pursuing the subject with him, but her compulsion to know everything was overwhelming. _Who was she? How did it happen? Did she kiss him or did he kiss her?_ Were just some of the questions that had relentlessly plagued her that evening.

Leonard was already in bed and almost asleep when he was roused by his cell phone beeping on the nightstand. It was 1am, but the text that he'd just received from Penny told him that for some troubling reason she wanted to violate her self-imposed rule of not seeing him until the wedding. His mouth went dry as he read the brief message.

' _Leonard I need to see you. We need to talk. P x'_


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all of you who reviewed/favourited the first instalment of this fic. I intend to follow this chapter up with one final instalment.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Big Bang Theory.**

After responding to Penny's text message Leonard waited with nervous anticipation. What was in reality only ten minutes felt more like an hour until he heard her tap lightly at the door of his hotel room. Opening it to see her standing in the hall he could see that she'd be crying; evidenced by the puffiness of her eyes and the tiny smudge mascara on left her cheek.

"Honey you're upset." he said softly.

Choked with emotion and consequently unable to muster a verbal reply, Penny simply nodded.

"Here come in. Sit down." Leonard encouraged, slipping his arm around his fiancée's waist and coaxing her over to the king-sized bed. Moving into the air-conditioned room Penny noticed the rented tuxedo that Leonard had picked up from a store before leaving Pasadena hanging on the closet door. On the floor were a pair of shoes, freshly polished and ready for the morning. Preferring to wear either sneakers or Converse, they were one of only two pairs that Leonard owned.

"This is about what I told you earlier tonight, isn't it?" Leonard concluded reaching for Penny's hand and feeling relieved not to have her pull away from him. Despite her resolve to continue onward to Las Vegas and with their plan to get married, he had sensed in the car and then later at dinner that she was hiding the true extent of her hurt, but hadn't quiet had the courage to ask her for fear of it erupting into a fight. "I've really screwed things up, haven't I?"

"I need to know Leonard." Penny said, gulping back her tears.

"Need to know what?"

"Everything. I need to know everything that happened."

"When you say everything?.."

"Well, for starters why you haven't told me before now." Penny interrupted lifting her shoulders in a bemused shrug before dabbing at her eyes with a tissue brought out from her clutch purse. "It's been nearly two years."

"I know." Leonard answered solemnly, bowing his head to look at the floor. "And I did try to tell you."

"When?"

"When I got back from my trip to the North Sea, but things had so good between us." he went on. "You must remember how I had doubts about going away and leaving you for such a long time?"

Penny nodded. She clearly recalled the conversation with Leonard over dinner and how she had done her utmost to hide her sadness and to offer only support and encouragement. For Leonard, working on a project associated with Professor Hawkins was a dream come true and she would never have dreamt of stopping him, but privately the prospect of being separated for four whole months had near killed her.

"Do you remember the day I got back?" Leonard continued. Standing up he made his way over to the mini-bar. Aside from his time away in Europe he wasn't a big drinker, but thought that a small measure of whiskey might steady his nerves. Talking about the event that he knew had hurt the woman he loved wasn't easy. Pouring himself a whiskey and vodka of equal measure for Penny, he added a scoop of ice cubes to each glass before returning to sit on the bed.

"Of course I do. We hid out in my apartment so that Sheldon didn't discover that you were home." Penny said after taking a gulp. "Hang on, was _she_ the reason you came home early?" she asked, it suddenly occurring to her that their might have been another reason other than surprising her for his early return.

"It's true that I thought it would be easier for me to leave when I did, but I came home early to be with you. I hope you can believe that."

He was telling the truth and at that point in his story Leonard paused, hoping for an acknowledgement from his fiancée, a sign that she didn't think that he was only telling her what she wanted to hear. "Penny, I missed you so much while I was away. Practically every moment of every day I thought of you." he continued. "I planned to tell you when I got home."

"So why didn't you?" Penny snapped impatiently. Clearly something had happened subsequently to change his mind. "We were together for a whole day before Sheldon barged in on us, why not tell me then?"

Taking off his glasses Leonard massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He'd forgotten how whiskey had an unfortunate tendency to bring on one of his migraines. "When you came back from the grocery store and found me in your apartment you were so happy to have me home... I just couldn't." Leonard explained. "And right when I thought I'd found the moment to tell you Sheldon rumbled us." he sighed, remembering how his roommate had overreacted upon finding them on the couch drinking wine and looking at photos from his trip. "After that it just became more difficult to find a way to tell you. You were busy with school... and I knew you'd be hurt. In the end I decided perhaps it was better that I didn't tell you. That it stay in the past."

"Until the day we were due to get married when you apparently you changed your mind." Penny interjected curtly.

Leonard couldn't deny his appalling sense of timing, but he had in no way intended to sabotage their wedding as Penny had accused him of earlier. "I promise you, my telling you today wasn't because I'd changed my mind about marrying you." he reiterated. "You know how much I've always wanted us to get married."

"So who was she? This girl you decided _not_ to tell me about?" Penny demanded impatiently. "Were you attracted to her?"

It was a question that Leonard had been hoping to avoid. Taking a short in breath he began to answer. "She was an experimental physicist on Professor Hawkin's team at Oxford." he said, speaking slowly. "We worked closely together a lot of the time. We became friends. And yeah, if I'm honest I guess I was a little bit attracted to her."

Hearing her fiancé admit to being attracted to another woman, Penny's chest tightened and suddenly it felt as though there were no air in the room, as though his words might actually cause her to suffocate. "So did you have a thing for her the _whole_ time you were away?" she questioned, unable to stop herself from jumping to conclusions and imagining the worst.

"No Penny, you have it wrong." Leonard cut in. "Yes I admit I was a little attracted to her, but the kiss we shared would never have happened had we not both been drunk after partying that night. We'd certainly didn't have a thing for each other the whole time, we were just friends that got caught up in the moment."

"And what _moment_ would that be?"

It had been early morning and the all-night party had been coming to an end. Leonard had gone out on deck to find his co-worker Hannah staring out to sea with a troubled expression. "She was upset. When I came up to her I could see that she'd been crying. Turns out her asshole of a boyfriend had sent her text telling her he wanted to break up. They'd been trying to make things work long distance, but he'd met someone else."

Penny stayed silent while hoping that Leonard wasn't expecting her to feel any sympathy for the girl that had knowingly engaged in the act of kissing with her boyfriend. Two wrongs certainly didn't make a right.

"I stepped in to comfort her...with a hug." he added quickly when spotting Penny's eyes flash with anger once again. "She said she always seemed to pick the wrong guy and how she wished she could find someone like me to be with."

"So _she_ kissed you?" Penny supposed.

Leonard confirmed with a nod. "She was drunk and upset. I was drunk too, but as soon as I realised what was happening and how wrong it was I pulled away. I stopped it."

For Penny it was a great relief to know that the kiss had not been instigated by Leonard and had been mitigated by them both being under the influence of alcohol, but there was one thing that still bugged her. "You said that you left the boat early partly because you thought it would be easier to be away from her, does that mean that something might have happened if you'd stayed?"

To those that didn't know her well, Penny often choose to hide behind a tough Nebraskan persona, Leonard on the other hand could always detect when she was feeling vulnerable and insecure. This was definitely one of those such times and was not dissimilar from the when she'd discovered that Sheldon's assistant Alex had asked hime out on a date. At first she had lashed out verbally, insinuating that Alex was his _'special lady'_ only to later reveal feelings of insecurity and fears of losing him to a girl more educated than herself.

"Penny, believe me you're the only girl for me. The only girl there'll _ever_ be for me. Beyond that one kiss nothing would ever have happened and I promise you nothing like that will ever happen again."

He'd already made the same promise once that day while driving in the car, but it was a promise worth reiterating. As far as he was concerned nothing or nobody was ever going to make him risk the love he had found with Penny. Longing to be held, Penny finally allowed herself to at last relax into the comfort of his arms.

"Thank you." She whispered after a silence lasting quiet some time.

"What for?"

"For telling me the truth. I wish you'd told me before now, but I guess I can understand why you didn't.."

Unfastening the zip off her sequin dress, Penny pulled it up over her head, revealing the black lace bra and panties that she wore beneath it.

"I'm exhausted." she yawned as she drew back the sheets on the bed, indicating her intention to spend the night with Leonard instead of returning to her own hotel room. For a moment Leonard wondered whether to bring up the subject of getting married the following day, but decided against it.

"Aren't you gonna get in?" she asked, patting the empty side of the bed when Leonard hesitated, not because he didn't want to join her, but because he couldn't help but be mesmerized by the allure of her beauty. She was quiet literally the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Eventually climbing into the cool crisp sheets beside his fiancée, he wrapped his arms around her middle, nuzzling the back of her neck and delighting in the familiarity of her scent.

"You're amazing." he breathed in to her ear. "I am so lucky to have you."

Forcing herself to stay awake and waiting until she was certain that Leonard was sound asleep, Penny rose from the bed. Picking up her purse from the chair and putting on the complimentary bath robe, she tiptoed into the bathroom, closing the door after her.

It was 12:30am in Nebraska when the telephone on the bedroom nightstand rang. Infuriated at being woken up and concluding that it could only mean that his wayward son was in trouble with the police yet again, Wyatt snatched up the phone from the cradle.

"This had better be good." he growled beneath his breath. He could hear his wife snoring gently by his side. At least the late interruption had only woken him.

"Daddy its me." a voice speaking in a half whisper said. "It's Penny."


End file.
